The tour by bus and taxi included 27 participants on a route from Traben-Trarbach and the Red Goddess (Rote Göttin) megalith to the homespun Museum of Oberkleinich, the modern high-tech Roman Museum of Belginum including the top of a Jupiter Column, Hochscheid, the SIRONA shrine and Kappelbach, Hellertshausen, the base of a Jupiter Column in the church in Hottenbach, Sulzbach, the Kings Stone Megalith (Menhir) at Rhaunen, Weitersbach, Krummenau, Horbruch, Hirschfeld, Irmenach, Starkenburg, Enkirch, Reil, and back to Traben-Trarbach and e.g. the Monk's Stone.
The Jupiter Columns were of special interest to all because they show "Roman Gods" which have been adapted from older pagan astronomical gods. As written at Livius.org:
"The problem that behind a familiar Roman form hides an unidentified native god, can also be illustrated with the example of the high, column-shaped monuments dedicated to what is called the Roman supreme god Jupiter. These columns have been found in the Rhineland, among the Treveri of the Moselle, in the country of the Tungri and among the Nervians. Usually, their square base is decorated with reliefs of the gods, and on their top is a statue of Jupiter, sitting on a horse, fighting against a monster. The ancient Mediterranean knew many myths about the struggle between the gods and the giants, but representations of the supreme god on a horse are absent.
Jupiter killing a Giant (Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren, Belgium)
Eighth-century Frieze of Wodan (Odin) and Sleipnir (Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Halle, Germany)
[both graphics are from: http://www.livius.org]
The closest iconographic parallel is the west-Germanic supreme god Wodan (or his northern alter ego Odin), who fought against the powers of darkness, seated on his horse Sleipnir. It is very likely that the Treveri, Tungri, Nervians and the inhabitants of the Rhineland have equaled these two deities, and told each other stories about Jupiter that once had dealt with Wodan/Odin. There is nothing strange about this. In Gaul, the old god Lugh had been renamed Mercurius, but seems to have maintained something of his old character. Another example is the Christian Saint George, who was once known as Perseus."
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